Image by Ingrid Abery - www.ingridabery.com
Day 2 at the 2011 Rolex International Regatta produced more perfect conditions with 15 plus knots and crystal clear skies. I jumped at the offer to join the biggest boat at the regatta - the one-off Dubois 90 foot canting keel, 'Genuine Risk' - for the day.
Meeting the boat and its 22 crew early this morning on the superyacht dock at the Yacht Haven Grand I could quickly tell I was in for a fun day. Even on the dock, Genuine Risk is an impressive sight, its five spreader rig dominating the skyline and its surprisingly narrow (just 15' max beam) deck bristling with racing hardware and a mind boggling network of control lines. For a largely professional racing crew the atmosphere as the team prepared the boat for the day's racing was refreshingly upbeat and relaxed - this is not always the case I can assure you. We were warmly welcomed by Genuine Risk's skipper Ralf Steitz (he is kind of a big deal, having three America's Cup campaigns under his belt - including one with America One and two as part of Dennis Connor's Stars and Stripes crew). 'We are glad to have you aboard. Make yourself at home and enjoy your day with us'.
Somewhat surprisingly, the excitement started almost the moment we left the dock. With very little wiggle room between us and the two monster motor yachts moored at our bow and stern - I was intrigued to see how boat captain Dave Culver would extract us from our berth. After a few brief moments of low rev backward and forward maneuvering, Dave gave the boat a surge of power and simultaneously began to wind the wheel hard over. My heart was in my mouth as Genuine Risk surged forward towards the towering bows of the power boat in front. Just as I was ready to jump up in panic, the boat's bow slowly began to answer the rudder and we glided by our multi million dollar neighbour by a few feet. Trying desperately to regain my composure I glanced around at the rest of the crew, who including Dave, we acting like nothing unusual had happened. However after a silence of about 30 seconds Ralf looked directly at the seemingly implacable Culver and said drily 'Well I'm glad that worked! Could have been an expensive starat to the day!' The rest of the crew immediately broke into laughter as Culver slumped over the wheel laughing.' 'Phew!' was his only comment.
Designed primarily for distance race sailing, Genuine Risk's canting keel and gargantuan rig guarantee an an equally enormous and debilitating IRC handicap which makes it almost impossible for her to win around the (relatively) short course racing at this regatta. That didn't stop Ralf and his slick crew from throwing their ninety foot flying machine around like a dinghy against the clutch of TP52's and Cookson 50's in their class. After an exciting close proximity start in the first race of the day (an 8 mile windward leeward) where Ralf clearly enjoyed mixing it a little with the TP52's, we quickly powered away from the fleet, touching 11.7 Knots upwind. When we turned the corner to come downwind the speedo leapt immediately to 15 knots with surges to 17. tacking and gybing this boat turns the crew into a whirling melee of arms and legs as the trimmers and grinders do their work - all to the accompaniment of a rumble from the hydraulics which moves the canting keel through 100 degree in just 12 second. ('It used to be 8 seconds' explained Ralf 'But that was way too quick - so we slowed it down'). Despite the complexities of sailing this boat the crew work appeared faultless and the mood onboard was almost playful, with the afterguard trading gentle abuse with each other and the crew. When I commented on how relaxed and fun the experience was, Ralf had this to say 'I'm glad it feels like that. We work hard to make sure everyone enjoys themselves on the boat. Otherwise what is the point of doing all this?'
What looked like a massive line honours win was converted by the handicappers into a third place on corrected time, but the Genuine Risk crew quickly shrugged this disappointment off and refocused on the longer afternoon coastal race. Another tight start at the committee boat saw us tacking almost immediately out to the right where after about five minutes we picked up more pressure and a nice shift to the right, which allowed us to flick back onto starboard. By this point the rest of the fleet had already faded into the distance and for the rest of the course we were racing alone. There can be few better experiences than sailing a flat out racing boat like this in shorts and t-shirt, with the beauty of the island of St Thomas as a backdrop. Given the chance to stretch her legs genuine Risk really delivers and I will remember for a long time the downwind element of that race, where we regularly and seemingly effortlessly touched 19 knots of boatspeed.
Despite, to my eyes at least, sailing near flawlessly for the entire race and consequently winning on the water by nearly 30 minutes, the handicap once again put paid to our chances of a corrected time victory and relegated us to a disappointing fourth. To be honest I struggled to care - the pure experience of sailing on this boat and with this crew for a day was more than enough to keep a goofy smile on my face for days afterwards.
To give you some idea of the 'Genuine Risk' experience, take a look at our video compilation from the first race of the day. We chose not to add music so you can enjoy the wonderful noises this boat makes.
Justin Chisholm
St Thomas
26th March 2011
